What's curious is, even though I was operating largely on instinct, a lot of those classic factors did not come to play.
My heartrate did not increase, and I only felt the adrenaline dump *after* the altercation. Like I said, I didn't realize I was in a knife fight until after I had already won it. My brain registered it as a social situation rather than a combative one, with a just a little bit of jiujitsu thrown in. Kind of like playfully putting your roommate in a rear naked choke while telling him to do the dishes.
It's interesting what you say about people reacting better when someone else is threatened, because that was totally the case. It was another friend who answered the door, and who was the target of the homeless fellow's intimidations. I was just standing nearby, and when he pulled out the knife, there was this sort of "well, he shouldn't have that" and suddenly I had taken the fellow's back.

Unless you're accustomed to somehow fighting by yourself, every combative situation is social. Can't have the "anti-social" without the "social".

Any club or bar security staffer will likely concur that it's not a dichotomy, but rather a continuum between the social and the combative, and that one extreme can lead--in all sorts of weird and unexpected ways--to the other.

Being accustomed to such matters, either from regular realistic training or from having dealt with belligerence on a regular basis (or both), may make it less likely that heart rate (or other aspects of fight-or-flight response) kick in. Whether this is a good thing (I think it is, but that's just me)...that's a matter of ongoing debate.

Okay, not to derail this conversation....but I have to know: Do you wear a powder wig?

Well, it's not powdered but, yes, I do have to wear a wig (and a gown).

After all, nothing says 'dignity' more than wearing a horse's arse (they're made out of horse hair) and a Batman cape.

I'm trying to do some pod-casts on this subject and my original plan was to have a 'Bob' doll in the background wearing all the gear but I think the Bar Council might take offence.

When I do the courts martial stuff the military guys wear their No 1's for the actual trial but just tend to wear BDUs and jumpers for preliminary hearings and the like. That's a weird scene. I look like an 18th Century cleric and they look like they're going paint-balling. That's probably why you can't take pictures in court!

Unless you're accustomed to somehow fighting by yourself, every combative situation is social. Can't have the "anti-social" without the "social".

Any club or bar security staffer will likely concur that it's not a dichotomy, but rather a continuum between the social and the combative, and that one extreme can lead--in all sorts of weird and unexpected ways--to the other.

Being accustomed to such matters, either from regular realistic training or from having dealt with belligerence on a regular basis (or both), may make it less likely that heart rate (or other aspects of fight-or-flight response) kick in. Whether this is a good thing (I think it is, but that's just me)...that's a matter of ongoing debate.

Well that's certainly true from a 'civilian' perspective; and that's why it's a good idea to at least have some 'social' techniques in your armoury (de-escalation, posturing etc.).

But as you rightly say, you need to be prepared for when the 'social' becomes 'asocial'.

From my own experience and research people used to asocial situations, either through work or proper training, do seem to cope better. Rather like Mr McClaw's experience related above they tend to be able to operate on auto-pilot rather than freezing.

I think it may just be being used to conflict. Most people manage their daily lives without encountering properly hostile conflict (i.e. the danger of violence rather than just a bit of bad temper display in the office). However, when they are in a situation where there's real violence in the offing they show all the stress signs (shaking, panic etc.) even if they are not themselves the target.

Now remember, these are the sorts of people who make up juries. So it's important for people who are stress inoculated to kill off proceedings before the court stage as there's a danger that a 'normal' person may see a seemingly calm calculated response to violence as indicative of a violent personality.

I had a good lawyer last year, he followed those recommendations for a self defence defence pretty much as you laid them out, wiccaman. There were times where I was thinking, "what the **** are you asking me about that for?" but when he tied it all up in the courtroom, I saw he was making grounds for me to "reasonably assume" that I was in danger. It's interesting, considering I lived this for real on the wrong side, to see a it written as cold data that is processed by the law, rather than being tainted with the emotion, confusion and ultimate vindication of the process as a defendant.